Help a new guy.

Hello all. This is my first post. A while back I purchased a Jamis something or the other for $200.00 from my LBS. Anyway, I am finally getting into riding this thing. I rode what was available, and that was flat trails. This weekend my friend took me on a nice mountain trail. 2.5 miles in and my rear wheel was junk, my crankset was trashed and the teeth on two of the three rings were useless. I realized then that my $200.00 investment was gone... time to upgrade.

I want to ride mountain trails. I believe that the category would be called All Mountain, but I am not 100% sure. Now for the fun part. I am 6'2" and 345. I have to get something that is going to stand up to my huge self until I get down to a smaller self. The LBS recommended a Haro Escape Sport. They said that the stock wheelset would hold up fine. What are your opinions? Please help!

There is a forum for heavyweights and I know one bike company has made a bike geared for heavy riders. I'm a light weight and I even need parts of reasonable quality for rough trails.

For starters I suggest at least having wheels and tires with some more to them. One sort of bike that is built strong and not too expensive is made for dirt jumping and trials tricks. Most bikes of the All Mountain class are dual suspension and built around longer travel forks and suspension items and wheels that do get expensive.

Visit the Clydesdale forum here and I'm sure you'll get some good advice.

Good to see you are getting back into it. The wheels will definitely be the place to research. One strategy is to research clydesdale oriented bikes straight from the OEM, the other would be to get a standard heavy duty looking bike and add your own wheelset. There are lots of choices, and many times the heavy duty ones are the cheapest ones.